All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Taylor Swift’s new album, The Life of a Showgirl, has done more than dominate the charts. It’s reignited one of the oldest – and fiercest – battles in modern womanhood. Once again, the pop icon has found herself cast as both heroine and heretic in the (pop) culture war’s endless inquest into what women should want. In The Tortured Poets Department, the mask began to
40 min listen
From wartime leadership to economic revolutions, Conservative figures have shaped Britain’s past and present. But who stands out as the greatest of them all? In this conversation, recorded live at Conservative Party Conference: Katie Lam makes the case for William Pitt the Younger, Camilla Tominay nominates Margaret Thatcher, William Atkinson points out the number of
For the fourth winter in a row, Vladimir Putin believes now is the time when Ukrainians will finally break. Russia’s campaign of systematic strikes on the country’s energy infrastructure has begun once again with the first cold winds. Last night, Putin unleashed nearly 500 Shahed drones, decoys and missiles against Ukraine, launched simultaneously at different
Yvette Cooper managed to say ‘let me be clear’ twice, in a couple of minutes during her interview with Nick Robinson on the Today Programme this morning. For seasoned Labour-watchers, the phrase ‘let me be clear’ was one inherited from the grand panjandrum of political deceit – Tony Blair himself – and is almost always an
28 min listen
Max Tegmark is an author and professor doing AI and physics research at MIT. He joins Freddy to discuss the moral and spiritual dangers of artificial intelligence, the rise of Silicon Valley’s ‘tech overlords’, and why he believes technology must remain a tool – not a master.
The machine is beginning to turn. The ceasefire agreed between Israel and Hamas, brokered with the direct involvement of President Trump, his envoy Steve Witkoff, and adviser Jared Kushner, has now formally taken effect. Hostages are not yet returned, but the mechanism for their release is in place. According to the agreement, Hamas must release
The conviction of Hamit Coskun of a public order offence for burning a Quran has today been overturned by Southwark Crown Court. It’s a vital victory for free speech in the UK, as well as for Mr Coskun, and the National Secular Society and the Free Speech Union, which defended him. It’s a mark of
Whether you consider World Mental Health Day an important and necessary means of drawing attention to often overlooked issues, or a gimmicky fad that somehow manages to overlook the other 364 days a year that such matters are equally important, there is no doubt that the royal family have been doing their bit to raise awareness. Never
It didn’t take long for a judge to deliver his withering verdict on a judicial review application into the use of SAS force in an IRA ambush. The legal challenge over the killing of three Provisional IRA (PIRA) men in June 1991 was described as ‘utterly divorced from reality’ by Mr Justice McAlinden. At the
40 min listen
Recorded live in Manchester, during the Conservative Party conference, Michael Gove sits down with Tim Shipman, Madeline Grant and Tim Montgomerie to discuss how the Tories can turn their fortunes around. Do the Tories need to show contrition for their record in government? Has the party basically been split ever since the Coalition years? And
David Norris, one of the men who murdered the black teenager Stephen Lawrence, had his parole hearing this week, but he was so uncomfortable about being seen that those watching on a videolink only ever saw the back of his head. They did, however, learn a lot about what goes on inside it – and why Norris
Of course, Donald Trump has not won the Nobel Peace Prize. The Scandinavian grandees on the committee wouldn’t dream of honouring him. It was silly to think that they would. The award has gone instead to María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition figure, so well done to her. Still, it speaks to the fundamental vanity
Donald Trump is a bully. He is a braggart. He is venal. But, as this week’s ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas shows, he is also capable of acts of uniquely brilliant statecraft. The US president is a master at using the hard power of his office to force changes that make the world a
It’s the SNP’s big weekend out as party members and politicians make the painstaking journey to Aberdeen for the nationalists’ annual conference. Just seven months away from next year’s Scottish parliament elections, the Nats will spend the weekend discussing campaign strategy, devolved policy and – you guessed it – independence. It would appear the talks
Did anyone seriously think that Donald Trump was going to emerge this morning as winner of the Nobel Peace Prize? First, there were the mechanics. Nominations for the prize closed on 31 January, at which point Trump was only 11 days into his second term and there was hardly a glint of hope in Gaza.
To BBC Question Time, where new leader of the Greens Zack Polanski spent much of the evening sparring with Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf. The lefty leader accused the Reform figure of being a ‘far-right, fascist’ that was obsessed with immigration while Yusuf accused Polanski of wanting a ‘communist economic system’ in a Britain where ‘it
Rachel Reeves is trapped in an economic ‘doom loop’: high debt, low growth and higher debt again. But, as pessimists’ eyes turn to the Chancellor’s Budget next month, there is a way she can turn that loop into a ‘virtuous circle’. The doom loop theory of Reeves’s economy has so far gone like this: But
From Thailand to Brazil, a surge of imports from Chinese electric vehicle (EV) producer BYD has the familiar pattern of being followed by the destruction of domestic automotive jobs. The UK is unlikely to be the exception. This week’s news that Britain has become the number one market for BYD should ring alarm bells. Our
The NHS has an anti-Semitism problem, and Wes Streeting wants to fix it. This week he announced plans to ‘make it easier to kick racists out of the NHS’. Policing hate is already the job of regulators, and systems that depend on judgement and restraint rarely benefit from political tinkering. Streeting’s move comes partly in
Normal people are cheering the prospect of peace in Gaza. Some might even raise a glass to Donald Trump for his valiant efforts to end this horrible war Hamas started. But there are others who will be feeling forlorn. The anti-Israel mob, to be specific. Won’t you spare a thought for this tragic community that
Over the past few weeks, many of us have watched with evident schadenfreude as Your Party, Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s embryonic progressive-socialist cum Islamo-populist outfit, fell into disarray. The wheels came off quicker than an expensive bike chained to a lamppost in Hackney. The jokes wrote themselves, part Armando Iannucci (‘Stalin would be loving
It appears that Labour is determined to ensure that choice in education is only for those who can afford it. The government has just announced that it is slashing funding for the International Baccalaureate (IB) in state schools, meaning the qualification may now only be offered in the private sector. What choice do parents of
35 min listen
Pete Hegseth has declared war on ‘fat generals’ and DEI in the US army – but why have standards slipped? Chris Caldwell joins Freddy Gray to discuss why the current administration feels so passionately about forcing a ‘major cultural shift’ in the military, plus the legacies of Bill Clinton’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy and
To India, where Keir Starmer has met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the UK-India trade deal and learn more about the country’s digital ID scheme. But of course the curious matter of the China spy case collapse came up at today’s press conference as questions remain about why the charges against Chris Cash
According to a recent study at Oxford, celebrity prostate cancer awareness campaigns have contributed to the over-testing of white, wealthy men from the south of Britain for PSA – prostate-specific antigen, a marker used in the diagnosis of the disease. This over-testing, the Oxford academics say, has led to unnecessary treatment, harm to individuals and
Reform UK’s momentum is influencing other parties too. The Greens voted overwhelmingly to elect Zack Polanski last month, partly on the basis that he would replicate Nigel Farage’s media success. Labour are basing much of their current strategy on a cordon sanitaire approach, hyping up the threat of any Farage-led government. The Liberal Democrats are
On Saturday, our Italy correspondent Nicholas Farrell asked readers for their help in persuading his Italian wife and six children that Israel is not guilty of genocide in Gaza, a genocide they believe Giorgia Meloni is complicit in. His daughter, Magdalena, 18, has asked for a right of reply, which we are publishing below: Dearest
15 min listen
Donald Trump says Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of his Gaza peace plan. During an extraordinary round table on the Antifa organisation last night, the US President was interrupted by Marco Rubio and given a hand-written message. He told those assembled at the White House: ‘I was just given a note
After two years of war, both Hamas and the Israeli government have agreed to a ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump. The pact will see the remaining hostages released by Hamas and the bombing of Gaza to stop. British politicians of all stripes have lauded the deal, while Trump has been praised for
In confirming the Israel-Hamas peace deal on Truth Social last night, Donald Trump referenced the seventh Beatitude from the Gospel of Matthew: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.’ Trump has been called a lot of things, many of them words you won’t find in the Bible, but could
There is no office more burdened by impossible choices than that of the Israeli prime minister. When Benjamin Netanyahu steps into the cabinet room today to present the Gaza ceasefire deal, he does so not as a tactician manoeuvring for political points, but as a statesman carrying the unbearable weight of a people’s pain, fear,
Nusret Gökçe, the Turkish social media sensation known as Salt Bae, has a restaurant empire built around the fan base for his incredibly expensive planks of steak; £680 for a wagyu strip loin, for instance, skirt steak for £380 and gold-gilded baklava for £50. Based in London at the Knightsbridge restaurant Nusr-Et, Salt Bae tried to expand